Pay Increase for Teachers Included in Gov McDonnell’s Legislative Agenda for the G-A [AUDIO]

On Wednesday, January 9, the 71st Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, Robert F. McDonnell will unveil his full legislative and budget agenda during the 2013 General Assembly Session. Governor McDonnell and I discussed a few highlights from the agenda including K-12 Education, Higher Education and Transportation.

Governor McDonnell is calling for a two percent pay increase for all teachers which is a first in five years. The pay increase will benefit all instructional personnel -guidance counselors, librarians, aides, principals, and assistant principals. There will be incentives for Teachers in STEM-H subjects and strategic compensation grants. Approximately 15 million dollars is allocated to award competitive grants to school divisions for the design and implementation of compensation systems for teachers that provide incentives that are tailored to each participating school division’s strategic goals and objectives.

Governor McDonnell said during our interview that he will be submitting a comprehensive transportation funding package during the 2013 General Assembly Session. “One of the things that really creates an impediment to attracting businesses and jobs is our road, bridge and rail. We’ve got knocked down from #1 to #3 in the business ranking among the states. It’s not bad but a concern because of our transportation network.” McDonnell said, ‘we got about 400 million dollars a year now, 500 million by 2018 that is being taken from construction to put in just maintaining our roads which means we have less and less money for new bridges to be built.”

For more information about Governor McDonnell’s “Excellent Teachers in Virginia” agenda, please visit All Students. In fact, he proclaims 2013 the “Year of the Teacher” which will feature programs and special recognition of teachers in Virginia.